Dr. Yeates Conwell is Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Director of the Geriatric Psychiatry Division. He also is Director of the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Office for Aging Research and Health Services (OARHS), of which the Memory Care Program is one component.
In 2012 Dr. Conwell was selected as an Innovation Advisor for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. He has lectured and written extensively on suicide and depression in later life, drawing on research that has been continuously funded by NIH institutes, the CDC, and foundation support for almost 30 years. He has been a regular member of NIH review panels and is current President of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and consultant to agencies and centers dedicated to suicide prevention worldwide. The primary focus of his work is the design and implementation of innovative approaches to the detection of, and delivery of care for, older adults with mental illness and memory disorders, with special emphasis on the community-based long-term services and supports and their linkage to the healthcare delivery system.
Dr. Conwell received his undergraduate degree from Princeton and his MD degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He completed psychiatry residency and postdoctoral fellowship training in geriatrics at Yale University School of Medicine before joining the UR faculty in 1985.